Matthew Lane Durham, of Edmond, was only 18 years old when he was accused of sexually assaulting children at a Kenyan orphanage where he had volunteeredand served as a missionary several times. He was charged with multiple federal sex crimes, but ultimately convicted of seven counts involving the molestationof seven children. A jury acquitted him of ten other counts.
Durham's attorneys maintained throughout the trial that their client was innocent and his confession was coerced by threatening to withhold his passport.
After his conviction, Durham appealed, requesting a new trial. The Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office also provided information to the federalcourt indicating the possibility of prosecutorial misconduct in the case, saying the lead prosecutor may have failed to disclose evidence relatingto medical testimony in the case.
Now, a federal judge has denied the request for a new trial but did grant some relief: he threw out three of the seven convictions, saying the prosecutionfailed to provide substantial evidence proving that the defendant engaged in sexual activity with the accusers in those three counts.
Convictions on four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places remain.
Also included in Durham's appeal was a constitutional challenge to the law under which he was prosecuted and convicted. Federal law allows a person tobe prosecuted by the United States government for specific crimes committed abroad. According to Durham's attorney, laws allowing the domesticprosecution of crimes alleged or committed on foreign soil are overreaching and outside the scope of Congressional authority.
Under federal law, a person can be convicted of "sex tourism," or traveling to a foreign land with the intent of engaging in sex with minors, whether throughchild molestation--as in the Kenyan orphanage case--or through child prostitution. The federal government can, under existing laws, prosecute commercialsex with minors that occurs in another country, even if the act is lawful in the destination country.
Durham has not yet been sentenced for his remaining four convictions of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign lands. He faces up to 30 yearsin prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. The judge has ordered a pre-sentencing report, but the court has not yet scheduled a sentencing date.
